Throwing away waste, prohibited positions on the bike, adhesive water bottles, or a shoulder push in the run-up to a bunch sprint; anything can happen during a race, especially in the Giro d’Italia, which has 21 stages. In the Leader’s Jersey keeps track of the various violations and associated penalties for you in this overview!
A rider can be punished by the jury for various reasons. A common reason is throwing away food and water bottles. There are special zones on the course for this purpose. If a rider does throw away his waste outside these zones, he (or the responsible team leader) can be fined.
Furthermore, fines are often issued for a sticky water bottle. The driver saves his legs by letting the team leader’s car take him along when handing over a water bottle. Nowadays riders must also pay attention to the position they adopt on the bike. For example, the time trial position (placing your wrists over the middle of the handlebars) during a stage and the ‘super-tuck’ (sitting on the top tube in a descent) have no longer been permitted by the jury for several years, for which the UCI is responsible.
Fines are not the only punishment that the jury can use. They can also hand out time penalties or deduct points for secondary classifications such as the points classification or the mountains jersey. Furthermore, a rider’s UCI ranking points are also not safe in the event of serious or repeated violations. The more serious the violation, or the more often a violation in a stage, also leads to a heavier penalty. In that respect, the ultimate punishment is disqualification, although it is rare that this actually occurs.
Fines and time penalties Giro d’Italia 2024
Stage 2
After a day without violations, the first fines were handed out on day two. Sports director Matti Breschel (EF Education-EasyPost) was fined 200 Swiss francs for an offense when handing food to a rider. The other fine, of 500 Swiss francs for throwing waste outside the permitted zone, also went to a team leader: Alexandr Shefer of Astana Qazaqstan. Although one of his riders was the perpetrator, he could not be identified. Finally, 39 bicycles were checked. No violations were found.
Stage 1
The platoon has settled into the first stage of the Giro behaved in an exemplary manner. Forty bicycles were checked and all were approved by the jury.